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Tony Bennett said he considered retiring following the 2023-24 season, but with the way the college basketball calendar is set up, he said he didn’t have time to think before jumping into recruiting.
The Virginia head coach and his staff scoured the transfer portal, recruited a class Bennett said he was excited about, and then prepared for the new season. When he went to ACC Tipoff last week to discuss his team, Bennett said he was “hopeful.” After that media event, he and his wife took a break and went on a trip.
It was then that Bennett had an honest conversation about his future.
“I’m no longer the best coach to lead this program in this current environment,” Bennett said at a press conference on Friday. “If you’re gonna do it, you’ve got to be all in. If you do it half-hearted, it’s not fair to the university and those young men. In looking at it, that’s what made me step down.”
On Thursday, Virginia announced that Bennett would be retiring, effective immediately. The national championship-winning head coach was set to begin his 16th season on the bench in roughly 3 weeks. Instead, he confirmed on Friday that associate head coach Ron Sanchez will take over as interim head coach in his absence.
Asked about timing, he said he always wanted to turn the job over to someone on his staff.
More than anything, Bennett called himself a square peg trying to fit into a round hole with all the changes to the college model in recent years. He admitted that his staff had mostly been handling conversations with player agents.
Bennett said the college game is not in a “healthy spot,” and cited a bevy of issues that are commonplace among major college coaches — the need for collective bargaining, regulations on the transfer portal, limits on agent involvement, and restrictions on the money teams can be spent for players.
He said Virginia would operate closer to a “professional model,” but said he’s not the man to lead that change.
“There’s still a way in this environment. There’s still a way to do it and hold to our values but it’s complicated and to admit honestly that I’m not equipped to do this is humbling.
“It’s right for student-athletes to receive revenue — please don’t mistake me — but the game and college athletics is not in a healthy spot. It’s not, and there needs to be change. I think I was equipped here to do the job the old way. That’s who I am.”
Tony Bennett explains where the changes need to come in college athletics, and the downfalls of the current environment.
“The game and college athletics is not in a healthy place”
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— Trey Wallace (@TreyWallace_) October 18, 2024
Bennett was teary-eyed all throughout his press conference on Friday. He said he still loves college basketball and will miss college basketball. He said he’ll be around the UVA program without becoming a distraction. But he ultimately felt it was a disservice to his players to continue.
“This is a place that will not compromise and do it the right way, and I wish it could be me but it can’t,” Bennett said. “And when you know in your heart it’s the time, you have to give it away.”
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
